It's a new era for both Duke and North Carolina alongside Tobacco Road, and only one of the rivals has adjusted to it properly.
With Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams both retiring within one year of one another, the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels tapped their successor from former players and assistant coaches. Duke hired Jon Scheyer a year after North Carolina hired Hubert Davis.
Fast forward to now, Davis was fired after another disappointing NCAA Tournament showing with the Tar Heels failing to make it past the first round for the second year in a row. Striking out on its top targets and not wanting to wait out Billy Donovan and the NBA regular season, the Heels panicked and hired Michael Malone, who has quickly proven to be in over his head in roster building at this level.
North Carolina has a clunky roster full of odd fits and just lost the centerpiece of it in Henri Veesaar, who declared for the NBA Draft last week.
Duke, on the other hand, has played in three consecutive Elite Eights and won back-to-back ACC regular season and tournament crowns. And in terms of roster building, there aren't many doing it better than Scheyer right now. Along with landing another elite high school recruiting class, Scheyer reeled in Wisconsin star transfer guard John Blackwell to give his backcourt some much-needed scoring punch.
As a result, Duke sits at No. 2 in ESPN's latest way-too-early Top 25 rankings. UNC didn't make the cut.
Duke is ranked No. 2 in way-too-early Top 25 with UNC unranked
Not only did North Carolina not make the Top 25, but they technically didn't make the Top 30, either. Jeff Borzello listed his Top 25 and then added five additional teams who just missed out: Iowa, BYU, Ohio State, UCLA, and Texas A&M.
To make matters worse, not only is UNC falling further and further behind Duke, but the Tar Heels are falling behind others in the ACC as well.
Borzello included Louisville, Virginia, and Miami (FL) in his Top 25. All three have seemingly hit homeruns with recent coaching hires, and both the Cardinals and Hurricanes have done some excellent work in the Transfer Portal to rebuild their rosters.
Malone has already seemingly thrown in the towel on the high school recruiting efforts against Scheyer, and he's not acquitting himself that well in the portal, either.
UNC fans may have feigned excitement over the Malone hire once it was made and hyped up his NBA Championship ring. But Nikola Jokic ain't walking through that door in Chapel Hill, and that insincerity will only last until the losses begin to pile up.
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